M&S hires Dunn and Humby to ramp up customer insight

Marks & Spencer has revealed a partnership with Starcount to help the retailer with its customer insight and personalisation efforts.

Starcount – which is led by Dunnhumby founders, Edwina Dunn and Clive Humby who helped to establish Tesco Clubcard – will help M&S with customer insight as part of the retailer’s five-year transformation project.

M&S launched its Sparks loyalty card two-and-a-half years ago and has since gain six million members. M&S said the programme is a “key tool for customer insight and engagement” and “central to helping M&S become a digital-first retailer”.

The appointment of Starcount follows a restructure of the marketing team at M&S to ensure it is closely aligned to strategic priorities of the business.

Rob Weston, recently appointed marketing director, brand and customer, said: “Sparks plays a huge part in helping with our transformation and having the best partners will enable us to focus on achieving a seamless experience for our customers.”

Edwina Dunn, CEO, Starcount, added: “We are delighted to be working with M&S and partnering with them on predicting their customers’ wants and needs. Starcount’s expertise is the science of purchase and intent, understanding the ‘why’ behind M&S customer purchases to help deliver growth, profitability as well as a seamless customer experience.”

It's been a busy start of the year when it comes to customer loyalty, with Tesco customers up in arms when the retailer decided to cut the value of Clubcard points last month. Equally, Sainsbury’s decided to bring its loyalty programme in house with a £60 million acquisition of Nectar, and Waitrose has decided to ditch its Pick Your Own Offers programme in an attempt to simplify loyalty rewards.